- An Unspecified Location in an Unspecified Pocket Dimension.
Within a great, spiraling tower, the wooden floors creaked incessantly as numerous men in brown coats and black slacks scampered about without end in sight.
Their marching was not purposeless; they were all making it a point to scour the rows and rows of books in their library in search of ancient texts.
They were looking for something, anything that might explain the strange spacial phenomena that had occurred mere days before.
On the top floor, an old man in a silver jacket was standing in front of a monitor display with a team of twenty behind him taking notes.
One man was at his side delivering a very necessary briefing.
"I've gone over these readings nearly ten times, sir. It's minute, but there are clearly trace amounts of eldritch signature throughout the entire cosmos. It is the same one everywhere."
The old man tousled his own hair in exhaustion.
"My god... How did one of them even get the energy to do something like that? And how in the hell did we miss it the first time?!"
"Y-You've inadvertently revealed part of the answer to your second question, sir. Please, take a look at this."
On the center monitor, a new graph showed up that appeared to have nothing on it.
"...Is this some kind of joke, Lou? There's nothing out of place here!"
"Y-Yes, that's just it, sir. This wasn't done with magical energy, or at least not any brand that our scanners could identify. But when we put things through a different lens..."
Now, a new image showed up of outer space, but the picture capture was covered by a dense, purple aura.
"T-This is..."
"Essence, sir. Of the abyssal variety to be exact... What we're seeing now are like the creature's fingerprints."
The silver-cloaked man had to rest his hands on the table in front of him to prevent himself from falling over.
"Are you telling me... that our greatest enemies have gotten hold of a power that lets them freely move around and rearrange all of space through physical power alone..?"
"...It seems that is the case, sir."
It took everything in the old man's body to stop himself from collapsing due to stress.
He'd thought the abyss had been too quiet lately.
No new apostles had been popping up in the last two years, and the new king had ceased all attempts to dispatch his Nyasir to a world so that they could 'soften it up'.
The organization wasn't sure why their activity had dropped to literally nothing, but now they had an answer.
'So this is why they've gone quiet... They were pooling in their resources for this... Whatever it is.' He realized.
"What are your orders, sir...?" The brown coat asked.
The man seemingly thought about it for a long time and it was clear that he was regretting not taking the chance to retire when he had it.
It took a while, but he finally came up with a solution to buy time and give hope.
"...The fact that we are all still breathing right now and we haven't seen all of existence turn into an abominable hellscape can only mean that the new overlord isn't very proficient with his new power yet.
That will give us the time we need to recall all reserved members and get all hands on deck for this thing.
I want eyes glued to every section of space at every second and every hour of the day.
Also... We're likely going to need to call in some favors from some of our divine friends in other solar systems."
"Our earth connections won't be included, sir..?"
"There wouldn't be much of a point to that.. Seems as if they could barely handle this situation before it got so out of hand. No need in folding in those useless bastards now."
The silver cloaked man finally dismissed everyone while he continued staring at the monitor.
This little outfit of his had been fighting against the abyss for ages, and never before had the battle felt quite so hopeless.
"...I know."
"And no matter how we may feel about something, we have to let our children live their lives as they see fit. She needs something like this to aid her in her development."
Abaddon was silent as the girls put on their best attempts to coax him.
"Let's just go with her today and try to find a good school, hm? I'm sure we'll all feel more comfortable afterwards."
"...Alright."
"Thank you."
Ayaana kissed her husband with a subtlety that slowly snowballed into a more intimate gesture.
Sif started to crawl to safety but Abaddon and Ayaana both held her firmly so that she couldn't escape.
Sometimes Abaddon stole her lips, other times it was Ayaana, and towards the end it was a blur of the three.
"Sorry to interrupt..."
The trio pulled their lips away from each other long enough to see Gabbrielle standing at the door.
"I'm glad you all are back... Can I borrow you for just a moment?" She asked.
Abaddon did not object to her request, and left Sif and Nyx in Courtney's room.
Once he was gone, the wintery goddess suddenly felt a little bit self conscious.
"Ayaana... Can I ask you something?"
"You're acting quite stiff with us for someone who joins us in bed almost every night. If we didn't know any better we would think that you had a split personality disorder."
Sif laughed nervously. "I-I just had a bit of an awkward question is all. I was afraid that I might anger all of you by asking."
Ayaana made a bit of a pained expression as she moved from the floor to Courtney's bed.
She patted her exposed thigh and allowed Sid to rest her head in her lap.
"Maybe we've been a bit too unkind to you at times, but we don't want you to think of us in some nefarious way.
We're all trying to move forward and coexist peacefully as a family just as we have been doing.
We promise not to strike you again, and we promise to never be upset with you for asking a simple question."
Despite Sif's claims that she didn't care and that she was fine with the way things were, Sif couldn't help but recall a memory from a few short days ago.
"I... told Abaddon that I loved him... He didn't say it back. And now, I can't help but ask myself... Will I ever hear him say those words again?"
Ayaana suddenly felt like a cornered animal.
Truth be told, she and her husband had lots of talks late at night after Sif passed out from... exercise.
They all knew how he felt, but Abaddon felt within his soul that he was barred from expressing it.
Can you claim to love someone when your entire relationship is the result of an accidental fabrication?
Or when you have taken the life of their own flesh and blood- erasing them from memory?
Abaddon didn't think so, which was why he tended to keep his mouth shut about his feelings around Sif and erected a subtle but resilient wall between them.
"Our husband... feels the same way about you that we all do." Ayaana smiled.
"And how is that?" Sif raised a brow. "H-Hey!"
Ayaana playfully shoved the jotunn onto the floor with a giggle.
The girls stood up and straightened their dress before leaving to follow after their husband.
"I don't know." They shrugged. "Maybe you should ask him for an answer."